Month: December 2019
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How to fight demoralization during your PhD (Adopt a kitten)
At some point in graduate school, the biggest challenge is to fight demoralization. It is not the work that is the hardest part. Not anymore. The hardest part is to keep going even though extremely demoralizing forces are at work. Yep, this is the dark place. When the will to live can start approaching zero.…
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This year, be kind to yourself
Re-posting as “This year, be kind to yourself”: This is a semi-weird post I wrote some time ago. Not entirely sure what kind of headspace I was in when I wrote it, but I think I was mainly trying to say: be kind to yourself. So, I changed the title to reflect that and added…
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Questions to ask when you visit a prospective graduate school
First of all, congratulations on getting into your graduate program! Now, it is time to visit the prospective graduate school and determine if it is a good fit for you after all. The things you learn during the visit will help you make an informed decision and set you up for success. You will get the…
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Why is graduating with a Ph.D. so hard? (And what you can do about it)
Graduating with a Ph.D. is just plain hard for many reasons. I made a non-exhaustive list below of the things that prevent people from graduating, and suggestions to combat these obstacles. Your data does not make sense. Or worse, you don’t have data because your experiment is broken. Suggestion: Consider performing your analysis on a…
